Saturday, January 02, 2010

An update on my "test"...

On New Year's Eve I posted an article on a test I was performing to see how many researchers with wrong information would be interested in making corrections when provided with documentation (you can read that post here). Out of ten e-mails I sent, three not only expressed gratitude for the information, but quickly corrected their Ancestry Public Tree entry. I am so grateful for their attitude and how swiftly they made the correction.

According to their Ancestry profile a few of the others haven't been on the web site for 6 months or more...so it may be a while before those will be corrected (if ever).

However, there still remains one researcher who in spite of documentation prefers to hold on to the inaccurate information. She found a John Manley buried in Iowa and seems to disregard any information that proves her wrong. I've sent her the correct headstone photo and offered to send her the other sources (obituaries that list her ancestor as a survivor, and the death certificate which lists the correct parents and spouse), but still she doesn't seem interested in accuracy. I find that attitude very sad.

It is a shame that "Anonymous", didn't have the courtesy to include their name or a way for you to contact them. I've always been under the assumption that if it is worth commenting on, then leave your name...otherwise I ignore them.

I have had the same problems! I also made the "newbie" mistake when I first started by adding information to my tree that other people had posted without checking it out the way I should have! I actually have two trees posted on Ancestry now; the one I started originally with Ancestry info and the one I uploaded with more source information. If someone told me that I had incorrect information and they could back it up, I certainly would change mine. Who wants to have an incorrect tree?